NUP and unending crises

The National Unity Platform (NUP) is caught in a creeping leadership crisis involving the deputy president for central region who has refused to recognise the authority of his party president in an alleged corruption dispute.

Mr Mathias Mpuuga is at odds with the charismatic musician-turned-politician, Robert Kyagulanyi. He has resisted orders to resign as parliamentary commissioner in a House where he occupies the Nyendo-Mukungwe seat.

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Formed four years ago after transforming from the little known National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP), NUP party quickly caught the public imagination mainly in what goes for the political south of Uganda. 

Its rapid rise attracted seasoned politicians such as the man from Nyendo-Mukungwe who ‘crossed’ to NUP after falling out with the leader of Uganda’s oldest political party, the Democratic Party. For a while, the party blossomed but now seems to be falling victim to its early success.

Political watchers say this is could prove to be a turning point. Precipitated by disagreements over whether he corruptly took the Shs500 million ‘service award’ barely a year into his tenure as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, the Mpuuga situation could trigger something drastic. 

Mr Kyagulanyi and the party’s National Executive Committee have denounced the award as corruption. They have demanded Mr Mpuuga refunds the cash, resigns and apologises to Ugandans for going against the ideals NUP professes. He has refused.

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True to form, the mandarins at NUP were having none of this, apparently willing to risk party cohesion to enforce their decision. There is a history to this uncompromising tendency. 

In 2020, shortly after they won the controversial court case legitimising the current leadership -- and which also removed whatever claim NURP’s founders led by a Mr JohnBosco Kibalama had on NUP -- the party was embroiled in disputes over selection of flag bearers for the 2021 General Election.  

Several intending aspirants accused whoever was in charge of that process of practising favouritism, bribe solicitation and discrimination. Matters were quietened after those at the helm remained firm to their position that nothing untoward had occurred.

Then, few months into Mr Mpuuga’s time as LoP, what is sometimes referred to as the more radical wing of NUP, started a whispering campaign against him. The impression created was that he had betrayed the cause and began working with ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

The media reported that the party president, Mr Kyagulanyi was not happy with the way Mr Mpuuga was handling affairs, choosing diplomacy over NUP’s signature brand of confrontational politics.
Officially, however, NUP’s leadership denied a rift was on the cards, dismissing such talk as state-inspired propaganda designed to unsettle the Opposition. 

But talk continued in Opposition political circles that NUP’s base; the ‘unwashed massed’ was at odds with those “who speak too much English” – a sardonic reference to Mr Mpuuga and some of the other new-comers’ posture as more ‘polished’ politicos. 

In June 2022, reports emerged that some NUP members in Parliament joined in the taking of a Shs40 million ‘bribe’. The then party spokesperson, who is the current LoP, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, told reporters that some members returned the said “dirty” money and even apologised. 

However, in a twist, NUP’s Bukoto South MP, who has since joined the Patriotic League of Uganda – a political outfit led by the President’s son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, returned the money to the House but in the ensuing drama, Speaker Anita Among instead asked him to apologise for allegedly telling lies about Parliament.

Barely six months later, documents leaked on social media showing Mr Mpuuga had in June 2022 been handed the service award. Three NRM backbench commissioners also pocketed Shs400 million from the House Commission which is the top administrative organ of Parliament.

In the stand-off that has built up since culminated this week in NUP announcing they have withdrawn Mr Mpuuga as the Opposition representative on the Commission. But there is a catch: they must convince at least 177 parliamentary colleagues to sign a notice and persuade 265 members to vote in favour of a motion recalling the LoP. 

That motion must also first get its way onto the Order of Business – something sceptics doubt is likely given the strings tying the House leadership to the award since Ms Among chairs the Commission as Speaker.

After NUP’s Tuesday closed-door party caucus meeting, Mr Kyagulanyi posted on his official X handle: “This afternoon, we were delighted to interact with the NUP Members of Parliament… Most importantly, I charged them to individually and collectively take a firm stand against corruption and abuse of public funds, otherwise our people will start asking questions”.

He said what will distinguish NUP from NRM whom they seek to drive out of power is “how and where we stand on moral issues”.